Sunday, May 25, 2008

The Communist's Potato Chip, Parades, and Damage

Black's pollin-covered toes

First off, thank you kindly for all of those who expressed concern for my family and I. After three days things have started to seem normal again, though sirens and helicopters still could be warnings and the big fire is still raging elsewhere in the mountains - 35% contained by the most recent estimate. Scary.

Though as evidence of the return of normalcy I offer up an instance from Friday, May 23rd, 2008, in which my sister and I were eating lunch outside in the sun, enjoying our home and animals to the fullest. When the Communist eagerly trotted over to rub on me with his tail, I refrained from calling him any anti-red names and instead tossed him a bit of a Kettle Chip potato chip. To my utter surprise, he crunched the whole thing up!

I saved him a few pieces so that I could film the Communist eating a potato chip. With Alex, Teyla and Comanche watching, I set the Commie on the table and tried to feed him a chip. Watch what ensues. Teyla gets jealous then when she gets teased and yelled at, she runs into the garage to tell on us to our mom who she also thinks is her mom, of course:

Saturday morning was the local Memorial Day parade to honor our fallen soldiers. ...And it started off with a horrendous rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Seriously. Think Hillary Clinton screeching at the top of her lungs.

My sister rode our horse Sparrow in it while her boyfriend and I talked about filmmaking. As you can see, Sparrow, high-strung by nature, wasn't exactly cooperating. The good thing is her antics made her look like she was intentionally side-stepping and the crowd enjoyed it! And Alex looked gorgeous as ever. :)

Right about now Sparrow bucked. I can see why. Look at her back hooves. Someone chucked a cherry candy at her, the jerk!

Here are a few of the parade's other participants:

This handsome and patriotic youth was in attendance, perhaps to see...

...this guy and...

...this guy.

And really, no parade is complete without Bigfoot. He lives in the area and needs representation, after all.

Howard doing the best job of them all -- cleaning up after the horses! Check out his shirt. Like it? That's my drawing. ;)

Me and Tony after the parade. Needless to say, I am not a morning person. And it shows.

Later that day I hiked to the North Ridge to survey the burnt forest on the mountainside. Very sad to see so much death and damage, but hopefully it will soon yield new life. I think the pictures speak for themselves without captions.